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This past Thursday, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts introduced housing legislation that would enact several changes to the Fair Housing Act, including the elimination of regional contribution agreements (RCAs.)

The bill (A-500) will be available online shortly at: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/
We anticipate a hearing on the bill sometime after the budget recess, probably in May, and that the Speaker will seek a vote by the full General Assembly sometime before the summer recess commences in late June.

A 20% mandatory set-aside for affordable housing for all state-assisted development projects, including developments in “smart growth areas” and transit villages.

Require one-for-one replacement of affordable housing units lost through redevelopment.

Expand the eligibility for affordable housing units by raising income limit to 110% of median income. Further, 25% of the new housing will be dedicated for households with annual incomes of about $19,000.

The League has asked its special RCA Committee and its COAH/Affordable Housing Technical Committee to review the bill, and provide their comments and recommendations. While the League has long-established policy in support of maintenance and expansion of all COAH compliance techniques, including RCA agreements, this bill, as you can tell, is a comprehensive and complicated piece of legislation that goes well beyond the elimination of these agreements. We will provide our analysis of the bill to you in the upcoming weeks.

Lastly, we would ask that you copy the League on any comments you provide. Again, we are in the process of seeking comments on the bill from our committees and will provide our analysis in the upcoming weeks, and well before any anticipated hearings on A-500.

Questions on this correspondence can be directed to Mike Cerra at mcerra@njslom.com or at (609) 695-3481 x120.